OF THE SOUTH SEAS 231 



thicker. The fruit was two or three times as large, and 

 red, and a striking difference was that it was placed on 

 the bunches erect, while bananas hang down from the 

 stem. 



I drank to her increasing charm, and I told her how 

 much the beauty and natural grace of the Tahitians ap- 

 pealed to me; how I intended to leave Papeete and go 

 to the end of the island to be among the natives only; 

 that I had remained thus long in the city to learn jfirst 

 the ways of the white in the tropics, and then to gain 

 the contrast by seeking the Tahitian as nearly as pos- 

 sible in his original habitat. 



Noanoa Tiare took the orange-peel and rubbed it 

 upon her hair. 



"Noanoar she said. "Mon ami americain, I will 

 give you a note to Aruoehau a Moeroa, the tavana, or 

 chief of Mataiea district, and you can stay with him. 

 You will know him as Tetuanui. He will gladly re- 

 ceive you, and he is wise in our history and our old cus- 

 toms. Do not expect too much I We ate in the old day 

 the simple things at hand, fish and breadfruit, feis and 

 cocoanut milk, mangoes and bananas and oranges. 

 Now we eat the dirty and prepared food of the Tinito, 

 the Chinaman, and we depend on coffee and rum and 

 beer for strength. The thin wheat bread has no noui'- 

 ishment compared with the breadfruit and the fei, the 

 yam and the taro. And clothes! The fools taught us 

 that the pareu, which left the body exposed to the air, 

 clean and refreshed by the sun and the winds, was im- 

 modest. We exchanged it for undershirts and trous- 

 ers and dresses and shoes and stockings and coats, and 

 got disease and death and degeneration. 



